TAYCAN CROSS TURISMO
The Porsche Taycan has ripped up the rule book on road, now it wants to dominate everything else as well...
Porsche has only gone and slapped a big boot on the Taycan, we’ve taken it rallying to celebrate
A small noise anyway, something soft and gentle, lost behind a wall of sound from a furious four pot. Now remove the petrol soundtrack. Treading on the Porsche Taycan Cross Turismo is akin to engaging an instant and very aggressive hailstorm. A bombardment. A barrage. A machine-gunning. These are the words I’d use – and so would Chris the videographer, who did not describe the pea-sized impact to the back of his head as a ‘dink’. It damn near dropped him to his knees.
Gravel is hostile, it sprays around like bullets and when the weapon being used to fire these plentiful projectiles develops 774lb ft of torque at a standstill, it has what a ballistics expert would probably term ‘a good range’. The crew should have come in bomb disposal suits.
But the Cross Turismo has a Gravel mode. This lifts the air-suspended body by 30mm, adapts the torque distribution, throttle response and, in Porsche’s words, gives the Cross Turismo “increased Bad Road Capabilities”. The capitals are Porsche’s, so it must mean it. I’m not sure Porsche meant it as much as I did. You can also spec an £1,161 Off-Road Design Package which gives you those little flicks fore and aft of each wheel. Planning on doing what we did? Get them. You need all the protection you can get.
But of course you’re not, are you? We know the recipe here, and it’s alarmingly similar to the one used for the standard Taycan. The same motors developing the same power, the same 93kWh battery pack, chassis and underpinnings, the same four-strong model range with this Turbo S at its summit, even the same suspension with adaptive air springs and four-wheel steering. The changes are limited to new wheel mounts, strut supports and a revised self-levelling system. Plus the body cladding and estate back, obviously.
So I thought I knew what to expect from Porsche’s take on an Audi Allroad. Nothing more than a high-rise Taycan with a bigger boot. Which it is. But it’s also more than that. Much more. The best electric car of the past 12 months.
Of course it should be seeing as this range-topping Turbo S is also probably the most expensive electric car to go on sale for the past 12 months (although actually I don’t think this is the range sweet spot – the £87,820 4S would be my tip). But although it cannibalises parts from its sportier, lower slung sibling, this is emphatically one of those cars that’s more than the sum of its original parts.
It rides beautifully. Beyond beautifully. Like a Rolls-Royce or Bentley, in its softer modes the Cross Turismo is unafraid of its weight. The springs sigh with the roads, you get float, sag and cushioning over crests, unruffled movement from the suspension. This is the most important and – in many ways – impressive aspect of the car. The standard Taycan always feels taut. This one knows how to relax. Silence comes not only from the motors, but from everywhere. Noise, vibration and harshness have been banished. With the single exception of tyre noise, the Cross Turismo is remarkable for its comfort.
It’s one of those cars that sweeps along effortlessly, carrying speed easily, lightly and deftly, the sort of speed that leaves passengers clueless as to how quickly they’re travelling. There’s no heave around corners, no loss of body control and, most remarkably of all, no tension in it. I literally can’t think of another car that blends speed and comfort as well as this, another car that you could load four people into and drive so rapidly yet serenely. It’s a world away from the stomping Mercedes-AMG E63, way ahead of even an Audi RS6 or Porsche’s own Panamera.
Does it matter that it lacks their rousing V8s? Less and less, I reckon. I quite enjoy the Porsche’s propulsion sound, but more than that I enjoy the precise, proportionate throttle response. Drama, that’s what’s lacking. But do you really want that from a car with the Cross Turismo’s remit?
Don’t mistake lack of drama for lack of reward though. There is something beguilingly engaging about this car’s steering and the way it goes down a road. Firm up the suspension and that float disappears. In its place you get quicker control but still no tension or harshness. Having used its considerable weight in its favour, now it seems to have performed the trick of making it disappear. Push
DESCRIBE THE SOUND OF GRAVEL RICOCHETING OFF THE UNDERSIDE OF A RALLY CAR. A TINKLE? A RATTLE? A FLURRY?
“I LITERALLY CAN’T THINK OF ANOTHER CAR THAT BLENDS SPEED AND COMFORT AS WELL AS THIS”